Shut up and Pac-Man

Pac-Man isn't just a game, and he isn't just a round blob with a voracious appetite and a big mouth (a description that, after all, fits half of Newcastle).

No, Pac-Man is a gaming legend - one of the originals.

It's fitting then that while most game characters must sidle off to a corner of Computer Exchange to die, Pac-Man's getting a 25th birthday makeover. Pac'N Roll, a Nintendo DS exclusive due this summer, is set to get DS gamers rolling and controlling Pac-Man via their handheld's stylus and touchscreen.

The plot - Pac-World dwellers have been turned into spheres - is naturally just a premise for gameplay that comes across as a combination of the original Pac-Man, Marble Madness, and Sega's cult hit Super Monkey Ball. But whereas the latter games were all about dealing with untrammelled momentum, Namco says you'll be able to set Pac-Man dashing or bring him to a dead stop with just a mere tap of the stylus.

There are other updates. The original Pac-Man helped usher in the power-up concept; this being 2005, a strawberry or some other piece of ghost-imperilling fruit was never really going to cut it though. (Many of today's yoof probably wouldn't know what to do with a piece of fruit anyway - eat it or wear it?)

Instead, Pac'N Roll offers choco-thrills. Knight Chocolate, for instance, will armour Pac-Man so he can crash through walls, while Winged Chocolate will allow him to fly.

Happily, if this all sounds too much for die-hards, the game also includes a version of the ancient original, this time with support for two players.

Now if only they'd named him Bac-Man, we could end with a terrific pun.

Bac'N Roll. Geddit?

Oh, you did already.